Safety mechanism for reenforced selvage attachments



July 17, 1934; J. SCHWEISTRES SAFETY MECHANISM FOR REENFORCED SELVAGE ATTACHMENTS Fild J n. 20, 1932 s Sheets-Sheet 1 ly 1934- J. SCHWE'ISTRES 1,967,058

SAFETY MECHANISM FOR REENFORCED SELVAGE ATTACHMENTS Filed Jan. 20, 1932 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 E K- E 2/0 INVENTOR BY 7 P ATTORN x y 1934- J. SCHWEISTRES ,0

SAFETY MECHANISM FOR REENFORCED SELVAGE ATTACHMENTS Fi1ed.Jan. 20. 19 32 T s sheets-sheet a .1 'ATT NEYS Patented July 17, 1934 UNITED STATES SAFETY FOR REENFORCED SELVAGE ATTACHMENTS John Schweistres, Greensboro, N. (3., assignor to Mock, Judson, Voehring'er Co. Inc., Greensboro, N. (3., a corporation of Delaware Application January 20, 1932 Serial No. 587.683.

4 Claims. (01. 66-129) This invention relates to a safety mechanism to be employed withthe reenforced selvage attachment for full fashion, flat hosiery knitting machines.

' Reenforced selvage attachments, as is well known, are employed on all present day full fashioning fiat hosiery knitting machines for providing a reenforced strip along the selvage of the knitted fabric of the hosiery and also for the production of various reenforced heel designs and for orn'amenting the hosiery during the production thereof 'by knitting into the fabric at desired places therein, reenforced shaped areas of suitable design or configuration.

In the use of these reenforced selvage attachments it has been'found that frequent trouble has been encountered by the failure of the traverse nuts, forming part of the mechanism, and which carry the stops for the 'reenforcing carrier rods,

to stop at the proper places during the operation places during the knitting in of the reenforcement at the selvage or other design. I

The nature and scope of my invention will be more fully understood from the following de- M scription taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming part hereof, in

which:-

Figure l is a rear view in perspective elevation of a typical reenforced selvage attachment for a flat hosiery knitting machine which embodies the features of my invention. Said attachment is shown with so much of the cooperating mechanism of the knitting machine as is necessary to a proper understanding of the operation thereof.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the attachment and associated mechanism.

Fig. 3is a rear elevational view of a portion of the attachment showing the normal position of the parts of the safety mechanism before the attachment commences to function. Figs. 4, 5, Sand '7 are diagrammatic views showing the relative position of the parts of the safety mechanism during the operation of the attachment.

Fig. 8 is a view taken on the line 8- 8 of Fig. 3 looking in the direction of the arrows, and showing the relative position of the pawls and their operating parts when the parts of the safety mechanism are in the positions shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 9 is a similar-view to'Fig. 8 showing the relative positions of the pawls andtheir operating parts when the parts of the safety mechanism are in the positions shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 10 is a similar view to Fig. '8 showing the relative positions of the pawls and their operating parts when the parts of the safety mecha* nism are in the positions shown in Fig. 6.

As is well known in the art, full fashioning flat hosiery knitting machines are formed with a plurality of knitting sections each of which is provided with a suitable number of thread carriers which feed thread to the needles of each section. These thread carriers are mounted on longitudinally movable rods which extend the full length of the machine and are slidably actuated in suitable suppOrts attached to the machine frame. These carrier rods are adapted to have a longitudinal stroke suflicient to actuate the thread carriers so they will feed the thread to the needles which knit the entire width of the fabric. The extent of movement of these carrier rods is controlled by adjustable stops at the ends of the machine.

If the full fashioned stocking is to be provided with a reenforced selvage or an ornamentaldesign of a reenforced heel or other design, the reenforced selvage attachment is put into operation and said attachment is adapted to operate movable stops which limit and vary the'extent of travel of certain additionalcarri'er rods which carry the reenforcing thread carriers, so that the said carriers will have a varying extent of travel which will be less than the full width of the fabric and will therefore only feed the additional reenforcing thread to certain of the knitting needles during the knitting of certain predetermined courses of the fabric.

The construction and operation of the typical reenforced selvage attachment is well known and is indicated in the drawings as follows:

In Figure 1, the attachment is shown as pro vided with a pair of stops 1 and 2 which may be of any suitable or well known construction and which are mounted on the nuts 3 and 4. The nuts 3 and 4 are non-rotatively carried on the, right and left threaded portions of a screw shaft 5. The screw shaft is rotatably carried in suitable fixed brackets 6 which are secured in any suitable manner to the frame work of the machine indicated at 7. The screw shaft and its supporting brackets are positioned at a suitable point intermediate the ends of the machine and so that the stopsl and 2 will be in alignment with the reenforcing carrier rods (not shown). The rotary movement of the screw shaft'adjusts the positions of the stops 1 and 2 in opposite directions and thus varies the extent of travel of the reenforcing carrier rods.

The screw shaft 5 is provided with an extension' 8 which fixedly carries oppositely toothed ratchet wheels 9 and 10. The movement of the screw shaft 5 and the movement of the right and left threaded portions thereof is effected by means of pawls 11 and 12 which are actuated by mechanism hereinafter to be described so as'to selectively engage with the ratchet wheels 9 and. 10 respectively.

When the pawl 12 is actuated to engage the ratchet wheel 10 the screw shaft 5 is rotated in one direction and during such rotation the pawl 11 is held in a neutral position outof engagement with the ratchet wheel 9. In the same manner, when the screw shaft 5 is rotated in the opposite direction by pawl 11 engaging --the teeth of ratchet wheel 9, the pawl 12 is held in a neutral position out of engagement with its cooperating ratchet wheel 10.

The holding of the pawls 11 and 12 out of engagement with their respective ratchet wheels as above referred to is effected by means of the pins 13 and 14 which are mounted on the arms 15 and 16 of the lever 17. The pins 13 and 14 are adapted to be inserted under projections formed onsaid pawls such as indicated at 18 on pawl 12 and when in such position they will hold said pawls out of engagement with the ratchet wheels.

To automatically control the rotation of the screw shaft 5 by a selective engagement of the pawls 11 and 12 with their respective ratchet wheels 9 and 10, there is employed a pattern chain 19 to which a step by step movement is imparted from the cam shaft 20 of the knitting machine, through suitable well known mechanism (not shown).

Studs or buttons 21 and 22 on said chain are adapted to act upon the end 23 of a lever 24 which is pivoted at 25 to the frame work of the machine, and when the pattern chain is put into motion and the buttons 21 or 22 come in contact with the end 23 of lever 24 it causes the upper end 26 of said lever to move to the left as indicated in Figure 1. i

The upper end of lever 24 is provided with a notched seat 27 adapted to receive the end of a lever 28. When'the end 26 of lever 24 is moved to the left it causes the end of lever 28 to become unseated from the notched seat 27 and to drop downwardly. Rotatively mounted on the lever 28 is a roller 29. When lever 28 becomes unseated from the notched seatof lever 24, said roller comes in contact with the cam 30 on the main cam shaft 20 of the machine, and a rocking motion is given lever 28 which is transmitted to lever-31 pivotally connected with lever28 at 32. The upper end of lever 31 is pivotally supported on the extension 8 of the screw shaft .5 by means of supporting arm 33 which is shown in Figure 1 broken away so that other parts. of the mechanism might be more clearly indicated. To the end of lever 31, is connected the links 34, 35 and 36 which are pivotally connected with each other and to the frame of the machine as at 35a. The end of link 36 is pivotally secured to an arm 3'7 which is pivotally supported on the extension f screw shaft 5. (See Fig. 2.)

The pawl 11 is pivotally mounted on arm 33 and pawl 12 is pivotally mounted on supporting arm 37. When the rocking movement is imparted to levers 28 and 31 by the cam 30, such movement is transmitted to the pawls 11 and 12 and to cause one or the other of said pawls to rotate its respective ratchet wheel 9 or 10 and thus cause the screw shaft 5 to rotate in one direction or the other.

As above pointed out, when one pawl is in operation and rotating its cooperating ratchet wheel, the other pawl is held out of enga ement with its ratchet wheel by means or the pin above mentioned. The particular pawl which is to operate to effect a turning of the screw shaft is determined by the buttons 21 and 22 on the chain 19.- If the large button 22, for instance, engages with end 23 of lever 24, the upper end 26 of lever 24 abuts against the end 38 of a lever 39 which is pivotally supported on the frame at 40. This causes the end '41 of lever 39 to move to the right (as in Figure 1) and to swing to the left the upper end of lever 17 which is connected at its lower end to end 41 of lever 39 by means of the rod 42. The lever 1'? is pivotally secured to the frame of the machine as at 43. When lever 1'7 is shifted as above explained, thepin 14 which is carried by the arm 16v of lever 1'7,,is caused to become engaged underthe projection 18 of pawl 12 and said pin will thus hold said pawl out of engagement withits ratchet wheel 10. At the same time pin 13 which is carried by arm 15 of lever 17 is withdrawn to the left out of engagement with its pawl so that the con-. tinued oscillation of levers 28 and 31, caused by the action of cam 30 will cause said pawl 11 to rotate its ratchet wheel 9 and thus cause screw shaft 5 to be turned in one direction. Thenumber of studs 22 on the chain 19 will determine the number of rotations given the screw shaft in this particular direction by the action of pawl 11 on ratchet wheel 9 and also will determine the extent of movement to be given the. nuts 3 and 4 and the stops 1 and 2.

Likewise, when studs'21 contact with the end of lever 24 the lever 39 will be moved sufficiently so that the pin 13 will become engaged with its pawl 11 and hold the same in inoperative position with respect to its ratchet wheel 9. At the same time, the pin 14 is disengaged from pawl 12 and said pawl functions to rotate the ratchet wheel 10 and the screw shaft 5 in an opposite direction a predetermined number of times dependent upon the number of buttons or studs 21 onthe chain which engage the end 23 of lever 24. By the mechanism described above a selective engagement of the pawls with their respective ratchet wheels is accomplished and a desired direction of rotation of the screw shaft 5 is obtained sothat the position of nuts on said screw shaft and the stopsmounted thereon is varied to vary'the extent'oftravel of the reenforcing thread carrier rods.

I will nowdescribe the safety mechanism for the reenforce selvage attachment.

. Secured to the traverse nut 4 in any suitable manner as by bolts'44 is an arm 45. The free end of said arm is'prcvided with a collar 46 which is adapted tobe slidably mounted on a shaft 47. The shaft'4'? is secured to the lever 17 at 48. Fixedly mounted on said shaft 47 at predeterminedv distances apart, are the stop collars 49 and 50 which may be adjustably positioned on said shaft.

On rod' 42 which connects the end 41 of lever 39 with lever 17, I position a compression spring Said spring is positioned between a collar 52, fixedly secured to said rod42, and the projection 53 "formed on the lower end of lever 17. The rod 42'is adapted to be slidably supported in projection 53 against the tension of spring 51. The end of rod 42 is provided with a nut 54.

When, during the operation of the selvage attachmentthe nut 4 and its stop is moved to the left, the collar 46 on arm 45 will also move to the left along the shaft 47 and towards the fixed Iii-J collar 49. During this movement the pawl 11 is held out of engagement with the ratchet w eel 9. When the nut 4 has moved the required predetermined distance, the collar 46 is positioned adjacent and almost contacting with the fixed collar 49. If by change anything should go wrong with the operation of the attachment and the nut 4 should be caused to be moved further than was intended, the collar 46 will come in contact with the collar as, as indicated in Figure 5, and it will cause said rod 47 to shift the lever 17 to the left sufficiently so that the pin 1 will become engaged with the pawl 12. This movement of the lever 17, however, is not of such an extent that it will cause pin 13 to be entirely disengaged from pawl 11. (The position of pins 13 and 1d at this point is indicated in Figure 5.) The result will be that both pawls are rendered inactive by being held out of engagement with their respective ratchet wheels (see Fig. 9) and the rotative movement of the screw shaft thereby arrested.

When the attachment is again started and the pawl 11 is caused to operate its ratchet wheel to rotate screw 5 in the opposite direction, the pin 1 is caused to hold pawl 12 out of engagement with its ratchet wheel, and the collar 46 moves along the shaft 47 away from the collar 49 (see Fig. 6) and continues to move along said shaft towards the collar 50. Again, if the nut 4 should be moved too far too the right, the collar 46 will abut against collar 50 (see Fig. '1') and cause shaft 47 to shift lever 17 so that pin 13 will engage pawl 11 and at the same time pin 14 is not withdrawn to an extent that it is disengaged from pawl 12 and therefore said pins will hold both pawls out of engagement with their respective ratchet wheels (see Fig. '7) and the rotation of the screw will be again arrested.

When the safety mechanism above described begins to function, the movement of lever 1'7 caused by the action of rod 41 will be only approximately one-half the distance of the normal maximum movement during the normal operation of the attachment and means are supplied to compensate for said half movement so that it will not affect the normal movement or" levers 39 and i1 and rod 42. This means is the compression spring 51 which compresses when the said half movement of lever 17 is effected and thus no direct movement is imparted to rod 42 by the end of lever 17.

Having thus described the nature and objects of my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a full fashion knitting machine having a plurality of thread carrier rods, a stop mechanism comprising a pair of opposed stops for certain of said carrier rods, a reversely threaded screw for moving said stops so as to vary the length of stroke of said carrier rod, means for automaticaliy and intermittently rotating said screw to move said stops predetermined distances towards and from each other, means for stopping the rotation of the screw in either direction when the stops reach predetermined points in their travel, pattern-controiled means for determining the time or" operation of the screw, and pattern-controlled means for determining the direction of rotation of the screw, said pattern-controlled means for determining the direction of rotation of the screw including a resilient member to permit continuing operation of that part of the pattern-controlled means adjacent the pattern while the screw is at rest.

2. In a full fashion knitting machine having a plurality of thread carrier rods, a stop mechanism comprising a pair of opposed stops for certain of said carrier rods, a reversely threaded screw for moving said stops so as to vary the length of stroke of said carrier rods, means for automatically and intermittently rotating said screw to move said stops predetermined distances towards and from each other, means for stopping the rotation of the screw in either direction when the stops reach predetermined points in their travel, pattern-controlled means for determining the time of operation of the screw, and pattern-controlled means for determining the direction of rotation of the screw, said pattern-controlled means for determining the direction of rotation of the screw including a resilient member to permit continuing operation of that part of the pattern-controlled means adjacent the pattern while the screw is at rest, said resilient member comprising a link pivotally connected to a lever at one end and slidably connected to another lever at its other end, a head on said link and a compression spring on said link to normally maintain the head in contact with the last mentioned lever.

3. In a full fashion knitting machine having a plurality of thread carrier rods, a stop mechanism comprising a pair of opposed stops for certain of said carrier rods, a reversely threaded screw for moving said stops so as to vary the length of stroke of said carrier rod, means for automatically and intermittently rotating said screw to move said stops predetermined distances towards and from each other, pattern-controlled means for determining the time of operation of the screw, and pattern-controlled means for determining the direction of rotation of the screw, said pattern-controlled means for determining the direction of rotation of the screw including a resilient member to permit continuing operation of that part of the pattern-controlled means adjacent the pattern while the screw is at rest, said means for determining the direction of rotation of the screw also having means operated by means on said screw for causing said rotating means to lock the screw against rotation it said screw should accidentally further move said stops after the predetermined limit of movement L has been reached.

4. In a full fashion knitting machine having a plurality of thread carrier rods, a stop mechanism comprising a pair of opposed stops for certain of said carrier rods, a reversely threaded j screw for moving said stops so as to vary the length of stroke of said carrier rod, means for automatically and intermittently rotating said screw to move said stops predetermined distances towards and from each other, means for stopping the rotation of the screw in either direction when the stops reach predetermined points in their travel, pattern-controlled means for determining the time of operation of the screw, and

pattern-controlled means for determining the direction of rotation of the screw, said patterncontrolled means for determining the direction of rotation of the screw and including a multiplicity or" levers, two of which are yieldingly connected together to permit one lever to operate while the other is stationary.

JOHN SCHWEISTRES. 

